Windows Phone 8: Tips, Tricks and Hidden Features

Windows Phone 8 handsets are finally hitting retail shelves on Friday, which means anyone can get their hands on Microsoft's latest mobile operating system. The company has detailed several of the platform's features -- Live Tiles, the new Start Screen, Kids Corner, a revamped Camera, and more -- but whether you're a Windows Phone veteran or thinking about buying your first Windows Phone device, there's a lot to learn with Windows Phone 8.

We've collected some of the most useful tips, tricks and hidden features that you'll encounter in Windows Phone 8. Got any suggestions we didn't mention here? Let us know in the comments.

Take a Screenshot

You can finally take screenshots in Windows Phone 8 by simultaneously pressing the Home and Lock buttons -- as you would on the iPhone. Prior to WP8, capturing your screen required developer-unlocking your phone and downloading a developer-specific app. Now anyone can quickly share all of their ridiculous text threads and Home Screen variations.

Know That Tune

You won’t need to download Shazam onto your Windows Phone 8 handset, because the operating system has its own song-recognition feature built into the Search tool. Just tap the hardware Search button and tap the music icon in the bottom toolbar. The phone will listen for music and tell you what song is playing, along with a link to purchase that song in the store. In our testing, the feature worked very accurately and delivered results in under 15 seconds.

Power Down

When your battery is running low, Windows Phone 8 has a special trick to help prevent total power loss. Just go to Settings and turn on the Battery Saver option. Doing so tells the OS not to run any apps in the background or sync email automatically. You’ll still be able to make and receive calls and texts, but everything else will require manual syncing (opening up the app and choosing to sync). You can choose for Battery Saver mode to kick in only when your battery is actually low, or keep it on at all times. A little heart over the battery icon tells you when the phone is in Battery Saver mode.

Filter Your Feeds

Don’t want to look at your 500-plus Facebook friends while trying to find your mom on your contact list? When you’re in the People hub, go to Settings, tap “filter my contact list,” and select which accounts you want to show up. You can also hide updates from certain networks, so you won’t have to scroll through your high school friend’s baby bump updates while you’re trying to browse the latest news links on Twitter.

When You're Running Late

Windows Phone 8’s built-in Calendar has a Late button option that comes in handy when you’re behind schedule. Tap the button in an event and the app will draft an email addressed to all of the people invited to or attending that event. The default text: “I’ll be a bit late, but I’m on my way. See you soon.” You can edit or just hit send to use it as is. We only wish this could send late notices to contacts via text too.

Get From A to Z

It’s not immediately obvious how you should navigate your People hub contacts. If you’ve added all of your social networks -- Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn -- then the list of people can get too long to just swipe through. For quicker navigation you can just tap the header letter of a section, the “a” at the top, for example, and get a large overlay of all the letters in the alphabet. Tap one and hop over to that section of your contacts. Of course, you can always just tap the search icon at the bottom and type in your contact’s name.

Blocked Number

Remember back when you had to dial *69 to block your phone number and caller ID when making a prank call or dialing the number of your crush, who you were too afraid to speak to? Windows Phone 8 lets you choose who to show your caller ID to. You can select everyone, no one, or your contacts.

Attach Your Location

In Windows Phone 8 you can compose a text, tap the paper clip icon, and attach your location directly to the message. If your contact has a Windows Phone, they’ll receive a thumbnail of your location on the Maps app, which they can open up from there. If they have any other kind of phone, they’ll get a link that will open up in their browser.

See Things Clearly

Microsoft doesn’t want you to have to hold your phone up to your face to be able to read the text. The Ease of Access settings option lets you make text larger across the platform, from the Lock Screen to e-mails and texts. You can also opt for a high-contrast mode so that words appear starker against the background. Myopic eyes will appreciate this feature.

Internet Explorer Buttons

Internet Explorer is speedy and smooth in Windows Phone 8, but it does have some quirks. For one, there’s no easy way to switch through tabs. But you can change this. By default, there is a stop/refresh button to the left of the address bar located at the bottom of the screen. If you go to the settings in IE, you can actually change that button to be either tabs, favorites or stop/refresh. We personally recommend the tabs button, since it’s much easier to switch through all of your windows than having to open up a separate menu.

Mail in One Place

This isn’t anything fancy, but it can be useful if you have multiple e-mail addresses. In Windows Phone 8 you can choose whether or not you want to consolidate your e-mail accounts into a single inbox or keep them separate. It’s possible to link multiple inboxes together while keeping some others as individual apps. Just go to your Mail app, tap the ellipses icon in the lower right corner and then tap “link inboxes.”

Don't Shoot

Since Windows Phone handsets have a dedicated shutter button, there’s a chance they might go off when they’re banging around in your pocket or bag. The camera shutter does work in Lock mode, but if you want to make sure you don’t get any closeups of whatever’s in your pocket, go into the Photos app (that’s right, not the Camera app) to turn this function off. In Photos settings, just check the box next to “Prevent accidental camera launch when phone is locked.”